Set 5 HONORS

Even More Words From Myth!

saturnine

• adj • of a gloomy or surly disposition• A baseball was thrown onto my neighbor’s lawn,

and a saturnine old man yelled at me to get off his property when I went to retrieve it.

• Saturnine comes from Saturn, in Medieval times believed to be the most remote planet from the Sun and thus coldest and slowest in its revolution.

caduceus

• Noun

• A staff with two snakes twined around it and two wings at its top

• The medical profession uses the caduceus as its emblem.

• Hermes/Mercury carried a caduceus as messenger of the gods.

mercurial

• Adj• characterized by rapid and unpredictable

changeableness of mood • My sister has a mercurial personality; her moods

are constantly fluctuating.

• from Mercury, Roman god of merchandise, trade, and theft

lethargy nlethargic adj

• n - Abnormal drowsiness• adj - sluggish, dull

• My ancient bulldog exhibits lethargy due to her age and arthritis. I have to cajole her to get up and moving.

• [fr. Gk lethargia, fr. lethargos forgetful, fr. lethe]• Lethe - a river in Hades whose water caused forgetfulness

of the past in those who drank of it

Draconian – adj.

• Cruel, harsh, severe

• The dictator’s Draconian rules forced people to flee the country to escape from his cruelty.

• Draco is the Latin word for “dragon”, but it is also Greek for “lawgiver”. Draco was an Athenian lawgiver whose harsh legal code punished both trivial and serious crimes in Athens with death.